DEVONPORT BOROUGH.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 61, 12 March 1915, Page 3

DEVONPORT BOROUGH.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—This district may well be called the Muddle Borough. I have resided for many years in. it, and can safely cay ihatl have never known it to exist in such a forlorn and unkempt state as it is at present. It was only last week that I became acquainted with the beautiful, well-formed, tidy, and up. to modern ideas of first-class streets at Mount Eden; but alas, poor Devonport, richly endowed by Xature of all that a modern borough requires, yet existing in its loneliness at the lowest rungs of the ladder. One consolation remains, and that is, that .there must be a brighter future. Cheltenham Beach, the star attraction of the seaside, is spoilt by a ■wooden building protruding at its very centre, the symmetry of the -beach is gone, and the splendid view at the end of the road is a departed glory. The people voted the building, but cried "Hands off the site-" Yet they were ignored; shady trees, much required, were ruthlessly swept away, few are letf now for the protection of beach pleasure seekers. Cheltenham Beach Road, which is used by thousands of pleasure seekers at holiday time, consists of one footpath, some six feet wide, a portion of which is still a cattle-track. "although much frequented -by our territorials and the permanent force, who proceed in single file along it. A beauti- : fal, shady, dustless pathway could be formed on the west side of this road, . yet it remains adorned by Nature because there is no victim to piy half the cost of formation, for the domain blocks the way. The last act of those in power is the ruthless spoliation of the many fee trees throughout the borough, some of which were planted in the reign of a worthy ex-mayor. Mr. J. C. Macky. Trees of forty years' growth have gone to deetruction, crippled and maimed before the axe of the Electric Light Compar.v. It's only a tree; no one caree." Yet the sacrilege and vandalism remains a dkjrrace to onr land. There ore many residents like myself who deplore the ■ backwardness of the borough, and the Tongs that need resistance, and appeal -for a. Greater Auckland. I pen these few lines with the hope that able councillors will he retnrned at the coming elections who will lift th e Jxmragh from tte mire to a higher state of efficiency. -I am, etc. r CHAS. E. DACHE.